NEWS

Aaron Maine’s Porches follows the release of this year’s acclaimed Pool with the Water EP – a special opportunity to experience the music that formed the melodic skeleton of Pool in its raw state, alongside a pair of previously unreleased songs ‘Black Dress’ and ‘Black Budweiser T-Shirt’. Recorded solo in his adopted home of New York City, the Water EP strips Maine’s work down to its core, opening the curtain on his musical metamorphosis from previous releases Slow Dance In The Cosmos and those of his alias, Ronald Paris, into the Porches of today.

Coinciding with the release of Water, Porches has shared a video for previously unreleased song ‘Black Dress,’ one of the new tracks from the EP. Watch the video HERE.

Maine on Water:

I spent the first year after releasing ‘Slow Dance In The Cosmos’ teaching myself how to record music. I ended up with a bunch of pretty realized demos for songs that ended up on ‘Pool’ during that process. It was a loose and explorative time for me. I wanted to release a select few of these “demos” because I always find the excitement captured by recording a song when you first write it to be almost impossible to recreate later down the line. I chose to rerecord all of the songs that were to be on ‘Pool’ because I felt like by the time I had a batch of songs that I felt would make an album, I had grown as a producer and wanted to give them another pass. Either way, it’s fun to listen back to these earlier versions of the songs and remember how they first existed.

Water is available digitally today, stream it HERE, and will be on sale as a limited edition cassette during Porches upcoming autumn tour dates. It can also be purchased online, in limited quantities, through Bandcamp and the Domino Mart.

Porches commence new live dates with a US headline tour throughout September, supported by Japanese Breakfast and Rivergazer, before arriving in the UK and Europe for a run of dates which include a London headline date at Tufnell Park Dome on Monday 24th October as well as appearances at Pitchfork Paris and London Calling at the end of the month.

Domino are pleased to share news of a summer sampler; named after the first single from Wild Beasts new album, Get My Bang! showcases the sharpest cuts from Domino’s 2016 releases.

Alongside the likes of Blood Orange – at his most personal and political on the recent Freetown Sound, The Kills – still simmering with tension on their fifth record, Baltimore’s finest Animal Collective, the beloved King Creosote and of course, Wild Beasts, there is also a slew of newer artists from the Domino stable to delve into including Kansas-based Taryn Miller aka Your Friend, Sam Coomes (The Quasi man’s first solo album), NYC’s Porches, and the shadowy, psychedelic adventurers Higher Authorities.

Get My Bang! is available free with every order placed at Domino Mart and there’s a 20% discount available across the catalogue (excluding pre-orders until September 1st). Plenty of bang for your buck!

Superimpose, the documentary exploring the voices on The Range’s 2016 album Potential, is out today. You can watch the documentary via the Pitchfork TV YouTube, or via The Scene, the Conde Nast video hub.

Alongside the documentary release, The Range has today released Superimpose (Music From The Documentary) EP. It is available to stream or buy now via all good digital retailers.

The Range is performing today as part of THUMP’s live-streamed DJ set series Sunsets. Tune in via THUMP Facebook Live HERE at 5:30pm ET today to watch The Range debut tracks from the Superimpose EP.

The Range will be appearing on SiriusXMU tomorrow (Friday) night, hosting an hour-long Complete Control show. He’ll be playing songs off the EP, and will have some surprises in store for fans who tune in. The guest host set airs at 7pm ET and again at 11pm ET.

SUPERIMPOSE explores the making of The Range's new album Potential, which exclusively uses the voices of people who posted videos of themselves on YouTube. The documentary sheds light on the unique and varied human stories of the people featured on the album who were completely unknown to The Range (Brooklyn-based electronic producer James Hinton) when originally selected. The documentary travels to off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods of New York City, NY; Kingston, Jamaica and London, England to tell the stories of a wide range of unique people - from Kai, the shy Brooklyn teenager who loves singing Ariana Grande covers; to Damian “Naturaliss” Gordon, the charismatic Jamaican correctional officer by day, dancehall singer by night; to Ophqi, the determined Brixton rapper and dutiful father with a difficult past who is still waiting for his moment to succeed as a musician; and more. Directed by the gifted young filmmaker Daniel Kaufman whose resume includes short films and music videos for DJ Khaled, Waka Flocka Flame, OT Genasis, The Decemberists, and more.

SUPERIMPOSE is soundtracked by music from the Range’s critically acclaimed 2016 album Potential as well as unreleased new material made specifically for the documentary. A seven song EP - Superimpose (Music From the Documentary) EP - featuring new material from the documentary and a reworked version of Potential album standout ‘Superimpose’ is being released digitally to coincide with the documentary release.

01/08/16

On turning 60, legendary producer Clive Langer decided it was time to get a band together.

Previous to that moment, Clive’s CV read like a route map of the last four decades of the very best British music. As a member of legendary rock’n’roll misfits Deaf School, Langer had helped influence a generation of kids who’d go on to form bands as diverse as Madness and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Later on - with studio partner Alan Winstanley – he helped steer everything from One Step Beyond to Kilimanjaro; Too-Rye-Ay to Shipbuilding (a co-write with Elvis Costello) with stop offs for the Attractions, the Commotions, Morrissey, Roddy Frame and even the Dame himself (Bowie’s timeless classic Absolute Beginners). But something about that significant age set him on a different path.

Formed two years ago, The Clang Group are that band. Their first LP is called Practice. It comes out on Domino on Friday the 30th of September.

Recorded at Iguana Studio in Brixton with musician mates and long time cohorts (including Suggs and Roxy Music’s Andy Mackay), Practice is jagged, melodious, ingenious, impulsive and exhilarating. Usually all the same time. Driven by a frantic and restless energy, it’s exactly the kind of record you’d hope someone would make if they woke up aged 60 thinking, “Fuck it, I’m going to start a rock’n’roll band.” Yes, that good.

Practicewill be available on CD (WIGCD372), Vinyl (WIGLP372) and Digitally (WIG372D). Vinyl and digital versions come with a digital bonus EP featuring Rhoda / Places & Things / Breaking Out / Shipbuilding. You can buy the album on iTunes or via Dom Mart – special limited edition signed vinyl with a physical bonus 12” is also available exclusively via Dom Mart. The video for first single ‘Acre Lane’ was directed by Edwin Burdis in a secret location in East London – watch it HERE. You can stream the track HERE.

Boy King will be released on heavyweight 12” vinyl including album download card, with a deluxe edition including a bonus 7” of two bonus songs available via the Wild Beasts online store. The album will also be released on standard and deluxe CD formats, with the deluxe edition including a 12-page booklet, as well as digital download.

Ahead of the release of Sam Coomes’ first ever solo album Bugger Me – due August 19th on Domino Records - he is pleased to share another cut from the record.

Listen to ‘Fordana’ below, a heartfelt song that only Coomes could make with its glitchy and melancholic organ stabs.

Coomes is probably best known as half of the long running underground pop duo Quasi, the other half being Janet Weiss, herself better known as the drummer for Sleater-Kinney. Alongside bandmate Janet Weiss, Quasi have released nine albums over the last two decades and toured all over the world. Concurrently, Sam Coomes has played and recorded with the likes of Built to Spill, Elliott Smith and Jandek, worked as a producer and scored numerous soundtracks for underground films and art installations. In short, he is not a newcomer to the scene.

Bugger Me in Coomes’ own words is “Suicide meets The Beach Boys. Not the sophisticated ‘Pet Sounds’ Beach Boys, but more like ‘Surfer Girl’ stuff. More conscious reference points were Chris Montez or Timmy Thomas.” He wanted to make “entertainment music, but entertainment music meant for those not served by more mainstream entertainment music. Maybe one might want to take a break from Sheer Hellish Miasma & enjoy some simple tunes that maybe speak to the same sense of the absurd, that likewise reject commercialism & market-based aesthetics, & even now & again pay a little homage to the raw synthesizer noise we have grown to love & even crave. Maybe timeworn themes such as love & war still resonate in the dusty backrooms of your mind (indeed maybe they are the only themes which do so).”

Accompanied only by his organ and ‘Conny’ – a mid-‘60s rhythm box (non-programmable, “not even really a drum machine”), Coomes made a conscious choice to pare things back. He explains: “In a time where anyone with a computer & enough time on their hands can micro-manage a given piece of music to the nth degree; can process, arrange, edit & otherwise wheedle a song into a state-of-the-art showcase of outclevering the next guy… maybe allowing a song to exist at its most basic level is a means to not only subvert market-based (or, almost equivalently, technology-based) standards of production, but also a means to keep the music & the performance of the music honest. This is assuming of course that honesty is a good thing, or at least is considered a good thing by those unmoved by mainstream entertainment music, which often reeks of dishonesty. Whether this is a safe assumption, who knows? Actually, I’m suspicious of people proclaiming their own honesty – so forget it. Certainly, its artifice. But the intent is honest artifice – like the original King Kong, as opposed to the remakes. If King Kong for you means Willis O’Brien rather than Dino De Laurentis or Peter Jackson, then you probably have an idea of what I’m driving at.”

18/07/16

Following the release of the first two singles, Wild Beasts have given us even more insight into their forthcoming Boy King, out August 5th on Domino, with album stunner ‘Celestial Creatures’ – listen HERE. Where ‘Get My Bang’ and ‘Big Cat’ showcased a bold new direction, ‘Celestial Creatures’ channels classic Wild Beasts and features Hayden Thorpe’s angelic voice front-and-centre.

This follows the videos for ‘Get My Bang’, which can be viewed HERE, and ‘Big Cat,’ which can be viewed HERE. Last week, the foursome gave fans a glimpse into the making of the ‘Big Cat’ video, watch the behind-the-scenes footage HERE.

The band have also announced two in-store appearances to coincide with the album’s release at London’s Rough Trade East on the day of Boy King’s release, Friday 5th August, as well as Banquet Records on Thursday 25th August.

Where 2014's Present Tense album found Wild Beasts in reflective mood, absorbing a fascination with online culture and electronic music, Boy King has them, as Fleming puts it, "back to being pissed off". The quartet’s ever-present knack for sensual melody via Hayden Thorpe and Fleming's dueting vocals, Ben Little's sinuous guitar groove and Chris Talbot's potent rhythm section carries in Boy King an aggressive, snarling and priapic beast that delves into the darker side of masculinity and Thorpe's own psyche. As Hayden himself says, "After five records there had to be an element of 'what the fuck?'".

The raw pop of Boy King's songs are the perfect foil to Thorpe's libidinous lyricism: "it became apparent that that guitar almost became the character within the songs, that phallic character, the all-conquering male," he says. "I'm letting my inner Byron fully out, I thought I'd tucked him away, but he came screaming back like the Incredible Hulk." Here lies Boy King's greatest success. Between the slide of prowling aggression and interior darkness, there are glorious, gorgeous moments. It’s yet another incomparable Wild Beasts record; a visceral, sensual and jolting body of work that acts as a remarkable soundtrack to the early 21st century male malaise. Or as Thorpe puts it: "I think Boy King is an apocalyptic record. It's about swimming in the abyss. When you think about sex, you've got to think about death, they're one and the same.”

Forthcoming Wild Beasts live dates are as follows with UK dates highlighted bold. All tickets are on sale now via the band’s website HERE.

18/07/16

Canadian punk band White Lung has topped numerous “Best Album So Far” lists this year including Stereogum, Rolling Stone, Consequence of Sound, FACT and NME for Paradise, their fourth and most mature record to date. Now the band – comprised of Mish Barber-Way, Kenneth William and Anne-Marie Vassiliou - have been shortlisted for the Polaris Prize alongside artists including Carly Rae Jepsen, Grimes, and Kaytranada.

Now, White Lung are pleased to unveil the music video for ‘Dead Weight’. Directed by John Stavas, the clip features lead singer Mish Barber-Way head-banging her way through the track in hyper-kinetic fast forward. Much like the song, it’s an all-out assault on the senses and not for the faint of heart.

05/07/16

Following the announcement of new album Boy King, released 5th August 2016 on Domino, alongside its first single ‘Get My Bang’, Wild Beasts have released the video for the album’s second single, ‘Big Cat’. Filmed in several locations outside of Barcelona, Spain and directed by Pablo Maestres, watch the video now HEREas premiered earlier today via The Guardian.

“If ‘Get My Bang’ was a song of the id then ‘Big Cat’ is the super ego,” says lead vocalist Hayden Thorpe of ‘Big Cat’, Boy King’s menacing opening track. “It marked a breakthrough in the writing process for the album, defining the swagger and attitude that would come to shape Boy King. He is all powerful, but at what price?”

Where 2014's Present Tense album found Wild Beasts in reflective mood, absorbing a fascination with online culture and electronic music, Boy King has them, as Fleming puts it, "back to being pissed off". The quartet’s ever-present knack for sensual melody via Hayden Thorpe and Fleming's dueting vocals, Ben Little's sinuous guitar groove and Chris Talbot's potent rhythm section carries in Boy King an aggressive, snarling and priapic beast that delves into the darker side of masculinity and Thorpe's own psyche. As Hayden himself says, "After five records there had to be an element of 'what the fuck?'".

The raw pop of Boy King's songs are the perfect foil to Thorpe's libidinous lyricism: "it became apparent that that guitar almost became the character within the songs, that phallic character, the all-conquering male," he says. "I'm letting my inner Byron fully out, I thought I'd tucked him away, but he came screaming back like the Incredible Hulk." Here lies Boy King's greatest success. Between the slide of prowling aggression and interior darkness, there are glorious, gorgeous moments. It’s yet another incomparable Wild Beasts record; a visceral, sensual and jolting body of work that acts as a remarkable soundtrack to the early 21st century male malaise. Or as Thorpe puts it: "I think Boy King is an apocalyptic record. It's about swimming in the abyss. When you think about sex, you've got to think about death, they're one and the same.”

Boy King will be released on heavyweight 12” vinyl including album download card, with a deluxe edition including a bonus 7” of two bonus songs available via the Wild Beasts online store. The album will also be released on standard and deluxe CD formats, with the deluxe edition including a 12-page booklet, as well as digital download. All deluxe editions include bonus material, Boy King Trash. Pre-order the deluxe 12” of Boy King via Wild Beasts’ online store HEREPre-order the standard 12” of Boy King via Domino Mart HEREPre-order the deluxe CD of Boy King via Domino MartHEREPre-order the standard CD of Boy King via Domino Mart HEREPre-order the digital download of BoyKing via iTunes HERE

Wild Beasts will support the release of Boy King with a run of UK and European live dates in autumn 2016, including two nights at London’s Roundhouse on Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th October. The dates follow summer festival appearances including a headline slot at Green Man Festival in August, with those dates preceded by two short residencies in Leeds and Brighton in July.

The band have also announced two in-store appearances to coincide with the album’s release at London’s Rough Trade East on the day of Boy King’s release, Friday 5th August, as well as Banquet Records on Thursday 25th August.

All tickets are on sale now via the band’s website HERE. Pre-order in-store tickets as part of a Boy King album package via Rough Trade HERE and Banquet Records HERE.

Forthcoming live dates are as follows, with UK live dates highlighted bold: -

Porches return with a tropical-feeling avant-garde video for track ‘Car,’ a standout single from the group’s latest album Pool, released in February of this year. Watch it now below.

‘Car’s video was co-produced by Urban Outfitters as the 26th installment of their UO Music Video Series. Check out their blog for behind the scene photos and an interview with video director Daniel Brereton. Over the past 5 years, the UO Music Video Series has helped produce music videos for bands including Empress of, Petite Noir, Ariel Pink, Perfume Genius, and Spoon.

Aaron Maine, Porches’ frontman, recently made his way down to Philadelphia to do a session with Out Of Town Films. Being just Maine and his guitar, the session is personal and intimate. Watch it HERE.

Pool is available to buy now on vinyl, CD, and digital download. A translucent pink cassette version of the record will also be available on the road this fall, with limited online availability right now through the Domino Mart.

To coincide with the new video, new European and UK live dates have been announced for October, including a London headline date on Monday October 24th at Tufnell Park Dome and appearance at Pitchfork Paris Festival, alongside new US tour dates through the autumn.

10/06/16

We're happy to announce that the following Domino classics are back in stock on high quality vinyl and available now through Domino Mart or at your local record store. And if that doesn't make you toss your hat in the air, our special price offers across the entire Pavement catalogue sure as hell will.

Since the tail end of the '90s, Clinic have beamed in other-worldly psychedelic-pop transmissions from their own parallel dimension. Twisting and twining through paths that pass through the seldom visited regions of dub and '60s garage, Clinic keep it arty and groovy in equal measures.

Two classic LPs from the extraordinary Four Tet , now back in print. The 32 minute Ringer, a four-track excursion into the kind of wide-open spaces you might find if you set out to make techno with an afrobeat / krautrock sensibility. There Is Love In You- regarded as his best record in some quarters, this is a dance-inspired masterpiece.

Pavement were the first in their class, the band that spawned a myriad of imitators and released several classic albums, Slanted & Enchanted, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Wowee Zowee, Brighten The Corners and Terror Twilight. Actually, we'll correct that, they didn't make several classic albums, they made five classic albums. Go fill in the gaps in your Pavement collection: hurry, they're going, going...

Last week saw The Kills (Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart) release their eagerly anticipated fifth full-length album, Ash & Ice. The band, in speaking to Entertainment Weekly in the lead up to the albums’ release, had this to say about the record they made:

HINCE: I hope (people) can see that electric guitar music is the future! That it’s not stuck in the past, or nostalgic. I hope it makes them want to dress up and start a guitar band. And join our gang.

Mosshart: The aim was to be open and we pushed ourselves to write in a way that could be understood and mean something to other people. Human topics and feelings - love, joy, pain, loss, confusion, and those moments of feeling wildly, wildly happy and inspired beyond any sense of reason. The classic stuff! It’s an honest record.

The Kills recently performed a cover of Rihanna’s ‘Desperado’ during a Sirius XMU session. The entire session premieres tonight on SIRIUS XMU at 9pm Eastern, and will replay on Thursday, June 9th at 3am and 4pm ET, Friday June 10th at 9am ET and again on Sunday at 12pm ET.

The Kills just completed a coast-to-coast tour of North America, finishing up on Monday in California, where the band performed a rousing version of the album’s second single ‘Heart Of A Dog’ on Conan - Watch Here.The album’s lead single ‘Doing It To Death’ took the band to the stage of The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon last month.

Blood Orange - aka Devonte Hynes - will release his highly anticipated new album, Freetown Sound, on 1st July, 2016 on Domino. Written and produced by Hynes, Freetown Sound is a tour de force, a confluence of Hynes’ past, present, and future that melds his influences with his own established musical voice. A sneak peek into the album’s world (including brief glimpses of new songs and maybe even an album guest or two) can be seen HERE.

Press here to pre-order Freetown Sound via iTunes orhere to pre-order the deluxe edition LP available exclusively through Dom Mart. The deluxe contains the album on double LP housed in a wide spine jacket, and a bonus 10” with two additional non-album tracks “Do You See My Skin Through The Flames” and “Sandra’s Smile,” as well as a double sided 24x36 poster. The CD and LP are available 19th August.

In Hynes’ own words:

“I have just finished making an album about my life, my upbringing, being black in England, being black in America…my movement to this country at the age of 21, the same age that my mother moved from Guyana to London, and my father from Sierra Leone to London. Freetown Sound, the name of my album, is taken from Freetown where my father was born.”

For well over a decade, Devonté Hynes has proven himself a virtuoso of versatility, experimenting with almost every conceivable musical genre under a variety of monikers. After moving to New York City in the mid-2000s, Hynes became Blood Orange, pluming the oeuvres of the city’s musical legends to create a singular style of urgent, delicate pop music. Freetown Sound, which follows 2011’s Coastal Grooves and 2013’s breakthrough Cupid Deluxe, builds upon everything Hynes has done as an artist, resulting in the most expansive artistic statement of his career. Drawing from a deep well of techniques and references, the album unspools like a piece of theatre, evoking unexpected communions of moods, voices, and eras. Freetown Sound derives its name from the birthplace of Hynes’ father, the capital of Sierra Leone. Thematically, it is profoundly personal and unapologetically political, touching on issues of race, religion, sex, and sexism over 17 shimmering songs.

Hynes’s solo project lives in tandem with his in-demand role as a songwriter/producer for hire, working with the likes of Carly Rae Jepsen, Solange Knowles, FKA Twigs, and Sky Ferreira. He is also an established composer, scoring films (Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto, 2014) and artworks (Alex Da Corte’s Easternsports, 2016) alike. In 2015, his evermore-multifaceted career was crystallized on stage, where he invited his collaborators to take part in two sold-out performances at the Apollo Theater, with all proceeds benefitting Opus 118 Harlem School of Music.

Blood Orange is playing the following shows this summer in support of Freetown Sound. More shows will be announced soon.

Sam Coomes will release his first ever solo album Bugger Me on August 19th. Coomes is probably best known as half of the long running underground pop duo Quasi, the other half being Janet Weiss, herself better known as the drummer for Sleater-Kinney.

Coomes is pleased to share the first track from the forthcoming record, ‘Stride On’, all murky drum machines and gnarly organ stabs. Listen to 'Stride On' now below.

Alongside bandmate Janet Weiss, Quasi have released nine albums over the last two decades and toured all over the world. Concurrently, Sam Coomes has played and recorded with the likes of Built to Spill, Elliott Smith and Jandek, worked as a producer and scored numerous soundtracks for underground films and art installations. In short, he is not a newcomer to the scene.

Bugger Me in Coome’s own words is “Suicide meets The Beach Boys. Not the sophisticated ‘Pet Sounds’ Beach Boys, but more like ‘Surfer Girl’ stuff. More conscious reference points were Chris Montez or Timmy Thomas.” He wanted to make “entertainment music, but entertainment music meant for those not served by more mainstream entertainment music. Maybe one might want to take a break from Sheer Hellish Miasma & enjoy some simple tunes that maybe speak to the same sense of the absurd, that likewise reject commercialism & market-based aesthetics, & even now & again pay a little homage to the raw synthesizer noise we have grown to love & even crave. Maybe timeworn themes such as love & war still resonate in the dusty backrooms of your mind (indeed maybe they are the only themes which do so).”

Accompanied only by his organ and ‘Conny’ – a mid-‘60s rhythm box (non-programmable, “not even really a drum machine”), Coomes made a conscious choice to pare things back. He explains: “In a time where anyone with a computer & enough time on their hands can micro-manage a given piece of music to the nth degree; can process, arrange, edit & otherwise wheedle a song into a state-of-the-art showcase of outclevering the next guy… maybe allowing a song to exist at its most basic level is a means to not only subvert market-based (or, almost equivalently, technology-based) standards of production, but also a means to keep the music & the performance of the music honest. This is assuming of course that honesty is a good thing, or at least is considered a good thing by those unmoved by mainstream entertainment music, which often reeks of dishonesty. Whether this is a safe assumption, who knows? Actually, I’m suspicious of people proclaiming their own honesty – so forget it. Certainly, its artifice. But the intent is honest artifice – like the original King Kong, as opposed to the remakes. If King Kong for you means Willis O’Brien rather than Dino De Laurentis or Peter Jackson, then you probably have an idea of what I’m driving at.”

Bugger Me is available to pre-order now on vinyl, deluxe vinyl, CD and digital download. The vinyl, deluxe vinyl and CD all come with a black and white 16-page booklet and the deluxe LP is coloured black and white.

With less than two weeks until the release of their sixth full-length album, Ash & Ice, The Kills (Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart) are pleased to share the video for ‘Siberian Nights’, the third song from the record to be heard ahead of the June 3 release. ‘Siberian Nights’ was written by Hince, during a solo journey on the infamous Trans-Siberian Express. Directed by Giovanni Ribisi, the video reflects Hince’s “icy, paranoid” vision for the song.

Says Ribisi:

"I've always looked at videos from a cultural perspective. Whether it's about a single, cultural event or some facet of the band. Over the course of making this video, what was there evolved into being something more abstract. However, during its early conception, I was enamored with a John Houston film called The Misfits. Ernst Haas was there during the making of it, taking photographs. His pictures were some of the many references for the video.The Kills have always been one of my favorite bands. Their music is undeniable. It was a pleasure and a privilege for me to work on this."

The Kills continue to tour the globe, previewing songs off the forthcoming release. All upcoming dates below, and tickets are on sale now.

Wild Beasts have announced their new album Boy King. Their most direct and vital collection to date, the album is set for release on 5th August 2016 with its first single ‘Get My Bang’also released today. The video for ‘Get My Bang’ was shot in Belgrade and directed by Olivier Groulx (Arcade Fire, alt-J, Scott Walker) featuring vocalist Hayden Thorpe’s twisted routine of Justin Timberlake-meets-Trent Reznor choreography.

Where 2014's Present Tense album found Wild Beasts in reflective mood, absorbing a fascination with online culture and electronic music, Boy King has them, as Tom Fleming puts it, "back to being pissed off". The quartet’s ever-present knack for sensual melody via Hayden Thorpe and Fleming's dueting vocals, Ben Little's sinuous guitar groove and Chris Talbot's potent rhythm section carries in Boy King an aggressive, snarling and priapic beast that delves into the darker side of masculinity and Thorpe's own psyche. As Hayden himself says, "After five records there had to be an element of 'what the fuck?'".

A newfound creative friction between Thorpe and Fleming proved key to unleashing the unique pop sensibility of Boy King - Fleming’s more visceral experimentation unlocking new dimensions in Thorpe’s own writing. After spending a whole year finessing this new found impetus in East London, the band emerged with a collection of songs ready to take to Dallas and producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Swans, The War on Drugs). Both Thorpe and Fleming credit that trip to Dallas with teasing out the raw power of Boy King. In the studio, the band kept up the intensity of the office hour routine they'd employed during writing sessions and, they say, responded well to Congleton's sober discipline. "He made us get in there, get on and do it," Fleming says. "English politeness never featured."

The raw pop of Boy King's songs are the perfect foil to Thorpe's libidinous lyricism: "it became apparent that that guitar almost became the character within the songs, that phallic character, the all-conquering male," he says. "I'm letting my inner Byron fully out, I thought I'd tucked him away, but he came screaming back like the Incredible Hulk." Here lies Boy King's greatest success. Between the slide of prowling aggression and interior darkness, there are glorious, gorgeous moments. It’s yet another incomparable Wild Beasts record; a visceral, sensual and jolting body of work that acts as a remarkable soundtrack to the early 21st century male malaise. Or as Thorpe puts it: "I think Boy King is an apocalyptic record. It's about swimming in the abyss. When you think about sex, you've got to think about death, they're one and the same.

Boy King will be released on heavyweight 12” vinyl including album download card, with a deluxe edition including a bonus 7” of two bonus songs available via the Wild Beasts online store. The album will also be released on standard and deluxe CD formats, with the deluxe edition including a 12-page booklet, as well as deluxe digital download. All deluxe editions include bonus material, Boy King Trash.

Wild Beasts will support the release of Boy King with a run of UK and European live dates in autumn 2016, including London’s Roundhouse on Tuesday 4th October. The dates follow summer festival appearances including a headline slot at Green Man Festival in August, with those dates preceded by two short residencies in Leeds and Brighton in July. Venue pre-sale tickets for October’s Oxford and London headline shows are available today and on general sale from Thursday and Friday at 9am respectively. All other regional headline dates are on general sale now. Ticket info can be found via the band’s website HERE.

Forthcoming live dates are as follows, with UK live dates highlighted bold: -

The Last Shadow Puppets have shared the video for new single ‘Miracle Aligner’ – watch it now HERE. Taken from the number one album Everything You’ve Come To Expect, the new video was filmed in London and is the final video of the triptych from director Saam Farahmand, which included the videos for ‘Everything You’ve Come To Expect’ (watch HERE) and ‘Aviation’ (watch HERE).

‘Miracle Aligner’, plus singles ‘Aviation’ and ‘Bad Habits’, feature on the band’s second album Everything You’ve Come To Expect which was released 1st April 2016. The new album finds Alex Turner and Miles Kane reunited with James Ford (production and drums) and Owen Pallett (string arrangements) and joined by Zachary Dawes (Mini Mansions) on bass, recording the follow up to 2008’s ‘The Age Of The Understatement’ at Shangri La Studio in Malibu.

Yorkston/Thorne/Khan recently released the beautiful Broken Wave Live EP. The songs were taken from the Broken Wave Live sessions recorded at The Square Studio in East London. These sessions afforded the band an opportunity to showcase brawsome live versions of three songs from the band’s acclaimed debut album Everything Sacred – released earlier this year.

YTK are now pleased to share the video for ‘Song for Thirza’, the band’s reading of legendary songwriter and singer Lal Waterson’s original.

Elsewhere on the EP, ‘Broken Wave (A Blues for Doogie)’ is James Yorkston’s tribute to Doogie Paul – a powerful, tender lament to his old bass player and friend whilst Jon Thorne takes the lead on his yearning composition and album title track ‘Everything Sacred’.

Yorkston/Thorne/Khan are an experimental group that includes James Yorkston, one of the most “influential singer/songwriters on the Scottish folk scene”, Suhail Yusuf Khan, award winning sarangi player and classical singer from New Delhi and Jon Thorne, best known as jazz double bass player with electro outfit Lamb.

27/04/16

With just a week to go before the release of their forthcoming album, Paradise,out on Domino on May 6th, White Lung has unveiled the video for single ‘Below.’"This is my Stevie-Nicks-meets-Celine Dion ballad," said lead singer Mish Barber-Way."I needed to try to do a ballad about glamorous women. It's based on a quote by Camille Paglia, 'Beauty fades. Beauty is transient. That is why we value it,' she said. 'Feminism's failure to acknowledge that beauty is a value in itself, that even if a woman manages to achieve it for a particular moment, she has contributed something to the culture.' It's a song about the preservation of glamour and beauty."

Directed by Richard Bates Jr., the video stars AnnaLynne McCord along with other Marilyn Monroe look-alikes.

Richard Bates Jr. is known for his films Suburban Gothic and Excision.Bates said of the video, "White Lung play for an audience of impersonators who come to the realization that they've betrayed themselves in the pursuit of fame. ‘Below’ is a love-letter to influential female artists from the past. Our video serves to reinforce the notion that what makes an artist special cannot be manufactured." Both AnnaLynne McCord and Mish Barber-Way appear in Bates' most recent film Trash Fire.

White Lung have shared two tracks so far from their forthcoming album. The first, ‘Hungry,’"is a tightly-wound, catchy-as-fuck invective played at a polished, breakneck velocity," said Pitchfork, who proclaimed it 'Best New Track.' And ‘Kiss Me When I Bleed,’ which also received the BNT distinction. Now with ‘Below’ the trio has given fans yet another taste of their deepest and most mature effort to date. They will tour extensively throughout Europe and North America this summer. Full list of dates below.

For the making of Paradise, vocalist Mish Barber-Way, guitarist Kenneth William and drummer Anne-Marie Vassiliou reconnected in Los Angeles to work with producer Lars Stalfors (HEALTH, Cold War Kids, Alice Glass). White Lung spent a month in the studio, working closely with Stalfors to challenge what could be done with their songs. Bringing all the energy, unique guitar work and lyrical prowess the band are known for to the studio, White Lung curated their songs with a new pop sensibility, focusing in on making a record for the present - "I wanted a record that sounded like it was made in 2016", said William. Mixed by Stalfors and later mastered by Joe LaPorta, Paradise is their smartest, brightest songwriting yet.

Mish Barber-Way and Kenneth William sat down with Annie Clark aka St. Vincent to discuss the making of the album and their creative process. The entire conversation can be read here.

Paradise is available to pre-order now on limited edition deluxe colored vinyl, limited edition tri-glitter cassette, CD, and digital download.

We are delighted to announce that Villagers’ Darling Arithmetic has been nominated in the category ‘Album Award’, at this year’s Ivor Novello Awards.

Conor O’Brien previously won the ‘Best Song Musically and Lyrically’ Ivor Novello Award in 2011, for his track ‘Becoming A Jackal’ taken from the debut album of the same name.

Released in April 2015, Darling Arithmetic is the third full length album from Villagers. O’Brien wrote, recorded, produced and mixed the album at his home – the loft of a converted farmhouse that he shares in the coastal town of Malahide, north of Dublin. It was a more pared-back, intimate journey compared to the multi-faceted arrangements of 2010’s Becoming A Jackal and 2013’s {Awayland} and revealed a single-minded artist at the peak of his already considerable songwriting powers.

Previously nominated twice for the Mercury Music Prize and winner of Ireland’s Choice Music Prize, O’Brien is currently working on his fourth album.

Villagers will be playing a string of festivals this summer across Europe and North America.